Articles – Welcome to Obrimah Bloghttp://obrimahblog.com
upholding the tenet of conscienceMon, 14 Aug 2017 12:40:33 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.1Accountability: Brainstorming Versus Blamestorminghttp://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/13/accountability-brainstorming-versus-blamestorming/
http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/13/accountability-brainstorming-versus-blamestorming/#respondTue, 13 Jun 2017 11:02:59 +0000http://obrimahblog.com/?p=247Personal accountability is opportunity. It is opportunity to contribute to the organization of which we are a part.It is the opportunity to be counted among the otherpeople inside our organization whom we truly admire and respect. It is our opportunity to ask, “What can Ido to contribute?” and “How can I make a difference?”Many people confuse responsibility and accountability as being one and the same. They are more like two sides of the same coin.

Accountability is the obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a transparent manner. It also includes the responsibility for money or other entrusted property. Where accountability is not encouraged you start to have the blame game. This explains why brainstorming sessions become blamestorming.

Brainstorming can be a great way for a team to generate innovative new ideas and potential solutions to problems. But what happens when the team becomes more focused on assigning blame than resolving issues? Blamestorming occurs when a team focuses on assigning fault for projects gone wrong rather than looking for successful results. It can creep in any time a team struggles, and can destroy organizational culture, employee motivation and productivity. Mistakes at work are inevitable and organizations need to focus on learning instead of blame to generate improvements. The key to effective brainstorming, and team and personal productivity, is keeping your focus on ideas and not people. Finding out what caused problems to arise is key to making things better, and focusing your conversations on learning and instead of pointing fingers sets the stage for improved results.

Focusing on the cause of problems and using team ideas to resolve those problems sets a positive culture for transparency and innovation that will drive organizations into the future, and set a positive direction for employees’ ideas and thoughts. This means that employees will spend less time ruminating over unsuccessful projects and more time working to prevent problems from happening again and making themselves accountable. Even better, a transparent and inclusive process establishes a culture of employee commitment and shared accountability, where everyone takes responsibility for team outcomes and taking specific steps so that problems are less likely to occur.

The next time you see a team discussion or brainstorming meeting make the dangerous turn to Blamestorming and individual fault, remember to focus on finding specific actions to prevent the problem instead of assessing blame.

Accountability: The questions to ask:

I am totally responsible for my success at work.

I am very productive, regardless of my work environment.

I am accountable for the results I produce,even if a situation is unfair.

I take training classes to upgrade my skills and competencies on a regular basis, without having to be told.

I am very skilled at the work I do as demonstrated by my work performance.

I have demonstrated strong interpersonal skills where mentoring or coaching is concerned.

I hold my team to their commitments,regardless of how it may affect my personal and professional relationship with them.

I am willing to examine my own accountability issues to achieve team success.

]]>http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/13/accountability-brainstorming-versus-blamestorming/feed/0Longevity And The Blue Zonehttp://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/longevity-and-the-blue-zone/
http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/longevity-and-the-blue-zone/#respondSun, 11 Jun 2017 00:20:31 +0000http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/bs-i-cant-believe-all-the-features-mashed-into-this-micro-apartment/Experts have identified five (5) zones in the world where people live to be over 100 years and are healthy and still active. These zones are:

Icaria, Greece

Nicoya, Costa Rica

Okinawa, Japan

Sardinia, Italy

Loma Linda, California, USA.

This discussion will focus on the Loma Linda group that has an acronym that can be easily remembered. The NEWSTART Principle. I added an “H” to make it NEWSTARTH. Let’s get started:

N – Nutrition

E – Exercise

W – Water

S – Sunshine

T – Temperance

A – Air

R – Rest

T – Trust in God

H – Humor (sense of humor)

NUTRITION

What do you eat and when do you eat? There is a saying; “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

Longevity is in a way tied to our eating habits. The Loma Linda group advocate vegetarianism, however, if you can’t be a vegetarian eat a balanced diet. Let your meals include proteins, fruits, and vegetables. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so eat like a king. Lunch keeps you going, so eat like a prince, dinner serves little purpose since it can’t be burned out especially if you eat after 7pm. So if you have to eat after 7pm; eat a little, try and eat light food with fiber or just fruits.

The challenge with living in a city like Lagos is that most people get home late and then “enjoy” a meal of swallows. This is responsible for a lot of pot-bellied men and women. Why is swallow a problem at night? Takes time to digest and accumulates as fat in the stomach area. If you remember your basis biology, the process of digestion starts with mastication where the saliva releases enzymes to break down the food. With swallows you don’t have that luxury so the digestive system does extra work.

Our fore fathers who eat swallow burnt it off by walking to their farms or around the village. So if you have to eat swallow, make sure you can burn it off. Don’t eat swallow and seat in air conditioned cars, offices, or homes. Why do people feel sleepy or dizzy after a lunch bowl of ponded yam or eba? Your guess as good as mine. Don’t misunderstand me, I have nothing against swallows but eat it when you can burn it out. It may even be better to eat it for breakfast.

EXERCISE

Find time to exercise. As busy as you may be find some time. The easiest and most effective exercise is brisk walking. Experts say 30 minutes or brisk walking is good exercise. So if you don’t have a car and you commute, drop off a bus stop away from your office and walk. If you work in a building with an elevator, use the staircase for exercise and wave to the elevator. Find something to do. I once had someone say that; “Your health and fitness after 70 years is a function of what you did before you were 40”

WATER

Doctors say 67% of our body weight is water. So what the body needs is water not sugar & chemical loaded drinks. The Loma Linda group drink only water and freshly squeezed juices and smoothies. Keep your drinks to as natural as possible.

How much water should you drink, some say six (6) to eight (8) glasses of water. Some say drink enough water till your urine is transparent. It is advised you drink water when you wake up, it helps to clean the system and wash down toxic chemicals in the system. If you are dehydrated before you get to drink water, then you are damaging your body. Water should be taken at every opportunity.

SUNSHINE

Sunshine provides vitamin D which helps to improve skin quality, so try and enjoy that early morning sunrise shine not the hot sunshine. If you have a sedentary job that keeps you locked in the office all through the week, find time during the weekend to enjoy the sunshine.

TEMPERANCE

Keep things simple, don’t eat too much. Experts now say the more food you eat the shorter your life span. The body needs just certain amount of calories and all excess are a waste. Don’t be a glutton and don’t be greedy especially with free food, just eat what you need and can finish.

My late guardian Prof. John OyedokunOyelese(Professor of Mathematics) used to say; “Man is the only animal that drinks when he’s not thirsty”. So man drinks for pleasure and could end up not knowing his limits.

AIR

Enjoy fresh air. If you live in the city like Lagos where the air is not fresh get out once in a while to the outskirts (Epe, Badagry, Lagos Conservation center) and spend time out to enjoy nature.

The tighter your clothes the more difficult it is to fully exhale all the air. “Women (men) are subject to serious maladies, and their sufferings are greatly increased by their manner of dress. It is essential to health that the chest have room to expand to its fullest extent in order that the lungs may be enabled to take full inspiration. When the lungs are restricted, the quantity of oxygen received into them is lessened. The blood is not properly vitalized, and the waste, poisonous matter, which should be thrown off through the lungs, is retained. In addition to this the circulation is hindered, and the internal organs are so cramped and crowded out of place that they cannot perform their work properly” (White).

REST

Find time to rest, take your vacations, don’t be focused on just wining the rate race because the race has no end. “The road to success is continuously under construction”. If you don’t rest, you will end up resting in peace (R.I.P.). The Loma Linda group are Seventh-day Adventists and they observe Saturday as a day of rest every week, and don’t joke with their vacation.

TRUST IN GOD

The group claims that trust in God is extremely important because you may practice all of the above and still not live long. This is because they believe that it is God that has the gift of life and death and does whatever He wants with it at His own time.

HUMOR

Humor is not part of the NEWSTART Principle. Humor is my addition to the principle. People become stressed out because they take life too seriously, they never see the humor side of life. They keep malice, hatred and unforgiveness. “Unforgiveness is a weapon of mind destruction”. Someone says “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die”.

In more cases that not the people we are upset with don’t even know we are upset with them. They just go about their normal lives, while you ae dying slowly.

What is Laughter?

“Laughter is a smile that engages the entire body. At first, the corners of the mouth turn up slightly, then the muscles around your eyes engage and we can see a twinkling in the eyes. Next you begin to make noises, ranging from controlled snickers, escaped chortles, and spontaneous giggles, to ridiculous cackles, noisy hoots, and uproarious guffaws. Your chest and abdominal muscles become activated. As the noises get louder, you begin to bend your body back and forth, sometimes slapping your knees, stomping your feet on the floor or perhaps elbowing another person nearby. As laughter reaches its peak, tears flow freely. All of this continues until you feel so weak and exhausted that you must sit down or fall down”. (Holistic Nursing (pg. 313) By Barbara Montgomery Dossey& Lynn Keegan)

Benefits of Laughing

Restores balance and equilibrium

Helps to discharge surplus tension and mental excitation

Helps to boost productivity

Laughter is like having stationary jogging

A laugh a day keeps the doctor away

Laughter can have profound effects on organic illness, including incurable malignancies

Laughter releases the inner healing quality to restore you naturally.

Fortifies us against depression and heart disease and heightens our resistance to pain.

]]>http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/longevity-and-the-blue-zone/feed/0Public-Private Partnershiphttp://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/public-private-partnership/
http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/public-private-partnership/#respondSun, 11 Jun 2017 00:20:30 +0000http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/bs-you-can-squeeze-the-worlds-most-compact-folding-pram-into-a-shoulder-bag/A public–private partnership (PPP or 3P or P3) is a government service or private business venture that is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies.

PPP involves a contract between a public sector authority and a private party, in which the private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project.

In some types of PPP, the cost of using the service is borne exclusively by the users of the service and not by the taxpayer. In other types (notably the private finance initiative), capital investment is made by the private sector on the basis of a contract with government to provide agreed services and the cost of providing the service is borne wholly or in part by the government.

Government contributions to a PPP may also be in kind (notably the transfer of existing assets). In projects that are aimed at creating public goods like in the infrastructure sector, the government may provide a capital subsidy in the form of a one-time grant, so as to make the project economically viable.

In some other cases, the government may support the project by providing revenue subsidies, including tax breaks or by guaranteed annual revenues for a fixed time period. In all cases, the partnerships include a transfer of significant risks to the private sector, generally in an integrated and holistic way, minimizing interfaces for the public entity. An optimal risk allocation is the main value generator for this model of delivering public service.

There are usually two fundamental drivers for PPPs:

First, PPPs are claimed to enable the public sector to harness the expertise and efficiencies that the private sector can bring to the delivery of certain facilities and services traditionally procured and delivered by the public sector.

Second, a PPP is structured so that the public sector body seeking to make a capital investment does not incur any borrowing. Rather, the PPP borrowing is incurred by the private sector vehicle implementing the project.

On PPP projects where the cost of using the service is intended to be borne exclusively by the end user, the PPP is, from the public sector’s perspective, an “off-balance sheet” method of financing the delivery of new or refurbished public sector assets. On PPP projects where the public sector intends to compensate the private sector through availability payments once the facility is established or renewed, the financing is, from the public sector’s perspective, “on-balance sheet”; however, the public sector will regularly benefit from significantly deferred cash flows.

Generally, financing costs will be higher for a PPP than for a traditional public financing, because of the private sector higher cost of capital. However, extra financing costs can be offset by private sector efficiency, savings resulting from a holistic approach to delivering the project or service, and from the better risk allocation in the long run.

Typically, a private sector consortium forms a special company called a “special purpose vehicle” (SPV) to develop, build, maintain and operate the asset for the contracted period. In cases where the government has invested in the project, it is typically (but not always) allotted an equity share in the SPV.

The consortium is usually made up of a building contractor, a maintenance company and equity investor(s). It is the SPV that signs the contract with the government and with subcontractors to build the facility and then maintain it. In the infrastructure sector, complex arrangements and contracts that guarantee and secure the cash flows make PPP projects prime candidates for project financing.

Examples of PPPs

A typical PPP example in Nigeria is the Lekki-Epe expressway. The SPV for the project is the Lekki Concession Company (LCC). LCC constructs the road by seeking private funding, collects toll over an agreed period of time to recoup its investment and then returns the road to the government. This arrangement has had its issues and Government bought off the investment of the SPV but signed a collection and maintenance agreement with the SPV.

Another example is the Muritala Muhammed Airport (MM2) Local wing in Lagos concessioned to Bi-Courtney Aviation. Under this arrangement, the SPV builds the airport terminal and maintains it over an agreed period of time with airport taxes coming to it as well parking rights to recoup its investment.

PPP may be a solution to our health sector issues. The hospital building can be constructed furnished (equipment etc.) by a private developer and then leased to the Ministry of health. The private developer then acts as landlord, providing housekeeping, maintenance and other non-medical services while the hospital itself provides medical services. The developer collects all medical fees and charges. This way the likelihood of facilities deteriorating is reduced or eliminated.

Challenges and Barriers

Flexibility between the two partners as well as the contract and staff involved throughout the process. If one party feels they are losing some of the control they may work on adopting more rules and regulations throughout the process instead of working together to be flexible and mediate an issue.

Timeline: Non-profits are working on a long-term timeline. Many of their goals can only be achieved with long-term commitment; this is where their focus will lie. For-profit organizations are more short-term oriented because of short-term goals focusing primarily on profitability. Finally, government agencies’ timeline depends a lot on election timelines and therefore can change regularly.

Focus of the project: Partners may not have the same focus when entering into a partnership even though they think they might.

Funding priorities: When parties can’t agree on where funding should go this can sometimes lead to losses in time, resources, and the overall funding for the project. Funding priorities for government bodies looks typically at where the public’s funds were spent in relation to the contract made. This then typically is looked at as in how many hours of participations, forms filled out, meals served, etc. Neighborhood organizations or small and local non-profits saw a broad source of funding during the early years but there has been a shift in funding more recently reducing the overall funding and seeing more of it go to larger agencies focusing on large grants.

Accountability: With the rise in public private partnerships there is also a rise in the responsibility that the non-profits tend to hold. With the government relying on many more of these organizations to provide the public services they cannot it is also proving difficult for the government to hold these non-profits responsible. When responsibilities are not set to the letter this can cause some in managerial positions to take the back seat, seeing their counterparts taking the initiative to get tasks done. This leaves an unbalance of work and sometimes those with the most stills are not doing the job. This can also be brought on by undermanagement causing more problems such as a lack of focus for the projects, mismanaged funding, and miscommunication.Too many projects and partnerships can also lead to a lack of accountability. When there are too many tasks they seem to all fall short of the hoped perfection. Some partners may be taking over roles of others because accountability has not been well defined. This can also lead to some taking advantage of others when they note the any weakness. This can cause a distrustful partnership.

Communication or understanding: One of the largest issues that can be discussed, communication can be a huge downfall and can contribute to many of the other risks within partnerships. It can be said that when entering into a cross-sector partnership it is difficult to understand and collaborate due to the diversity and differing languages spoken amongst the sectors. Items like performance measures, goal measurements, government regulations, and the nature of funding can all be interpreted differently thus causing blurred lines of communication.

Autonomy within the partnership: While working together is important it is still a strength to be able to work on parts of the project alone, take initiative when needed, and keep some individualism throughout the process. This is beginning to happen more with the privatization of public-private partnerships where the private organization may own the partnership itself and the government then keeps full responsibility for it. This keeps parts of the partnership separate for focus.

Conflicts: can arise from any of the above topics but even outside issues or forces may bring a partnership to a halt. Even though these partnerships are entered into with the best of intentions even the most trivial issues can snowball into greater conflict halting a partnership dead in its tracks. Having no understanding and communication between parties can cause conflicts with use of language, stereotyping, negative assumptions, and prejudice about the other organization. These conflicts can be related to territorialism or protectionism, and a lack of commitment to working within the partnership.

Possible solutions Partnerships might not be natural for business and managers do not want to depend on others but it is possible with careful solutions:

Creating an ongoing narrative about partnerships and how will these be developed, maintained, terminated. This is especially prevalent to the local and state governments who rely heavily on the non-profits for the public services. A business partnership model would not be accurate or appropriate for a P3. Many partnerships can be terminated early due to issues with trust and cooperation during the contract implementation process. These issues can be avoided when the organization has initial guidelines for dos and don’ts.

Creating a formal control mechanism for the partnership.

Ensure that there is a continuous commitment with negotiations in any time of trouble and even an outline for termination procedures if necessary.

conflict resolution, outreach and organizational development are items that managers can work on and even assign specialists to each task. Creating a timeline to be followed throughout the partnership assists in mutual understanding and communication as well. Assigning specialists to work with skills in communication, conflict resolution, negotiation and policy analysis cross-sector partnerships have also been able to flourish

Forum Discussion:

In the last 30 years there hasn’t been any infrastructural development in the country (no new airports, refineries, functional power plants, etc.) which is responsible for the current decay in the country’s services (bad roads – no maintenance or expansion plans, low or no power supply, fuel queues etc.).

Is PPP the way out if government seems incapable of maintaining existing facilities and also lacking the will to develop new ones? Should pension funds be channeled in this direction with PFAs forming SPVs?

]]>http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/public-private-partnership/feed/0Time Managementhttp://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/time-management/
http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/time-management/#respondSun, 11 Jun 2017 00:20:28 +0000http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/bs-the-fbi-paid-at-least-1-million-to-get-inside-the-san-bernardino-shooters-iphone/TIME MANAGEMENT: How to survive the rat race especially in a city like Lagos

Have you ever heard anyone say – I wish I had less time?

People use time, waste it and spend it.

Time is non-renewable, once-gone, it’s forever lost.

The following sayings are legendary:

You cannot cry over spilled milk.

Yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow a promissory note; only today is ready cash. What’s done is done. So what are doing with today?

How you spend time is a function of the things you consider important to you.

If time is a compass it is directed at your vision, mission, goals, purposes, doing right things, and scheduling priorities.

If it is a clock, it is about activities, doing things right, and prioritizing schedules.

So, what can be done with time?

Compass versus Clock

Clock Compass

Commitments Purpose

Appointments Vision

Activities Mission

Speed Values/Principles

To Do’s Direction

Doing things right Doing right things

Management Leadership

Prioritizing schedule Scheduling priorities

Painful Realities About Time

Time is passing us by and once gone can never be replaced

The older one gets, the quicker time seems to be passing

There are only 24 hours in each day

Time cannot be MANAGED, but you can manage yourself

Greater efficiency will not necessarily lead to better utilisation of time

How you spend your time determines who you are and who you will become

What should we do with time?

Time to Think – visioning/mission

Time to Plan – goals

Time to Act – growth

Procrastination – minimize lose time

“Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least” (Johann Wolfang Van Goethe)

Time Quadrants – Steven Covey

The most efficient time managers are quadrant II (2) people. Which quadrant are you?

There must a conscious effort to improve on your management of time. To achieve your vision or mission you must be committed to making sacrifices. Like the saying goes, “there is no gain without pain”.

As a young officer in Chartered Bank Plc, the Deputy Managing Director, now Chairman of Heritage Bank (Dr. AkinsolaAkinfemiwa, OON), shared an experience regarding a decision he made as a Deputy Manager by relocating to Victoria Island. This improved his productivity and expedited his promotions. I never forgot that experience and the sacrifices that went with it. So as a manager, I also relocated to Ikoyi and my lovely wife and myself had similar experiences with our career. What were the gains? Had enough sleep and well rested, was more mentally alert, healthier (no traffic wear and tear on the body), was more productive, and the promotions also came.

What we thought we lost in rent was compensated in promotions and other savings. We were able to improve our academic status, did M.B.A. programs and I later went further for a D.B.A. degree.

So what are your goals, are you aligning your time to your goals, are you willing to make the sacrifices that will go with it?

Benefits of Time Management

You become efficient and effective

You become successful

You are healthy

You remain focused

You are able to development yourself and others

You witness enhanced results in your performance

Your self-esteem improves

You live a balanced life

You have inner peace

Conclusion

Make the right choices, manage yourself and time will be under your control.

Leadership is by the compass, management is by the clock

Spend time on things that are important to you.

Reflections

Examine your life and the way you spend your time?

Do you know what is important to you?

Do you spend more time doing what is urgent or what is important?

Forum Discussion:

You live in Ikorodu and work in Victoria Island. You currently live in an apartment where you pay N500,000.00 a year. Your commuting time averages five hours a day. You were recently paid N5.0 million and had to make a choice between moving to Gbagada and paying N1.5 million as rent per annum or moving to Lekki and paying N3.5 million as rent per annum. The opportunity cost is a savings of N3.5 million but commuting time of three to four hours as against a commuting time of 30 minutes to one hour and savings of N1.5 million. What choice will you make?

]]>http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/time-management/feed/0RIP Marketinghttp://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/rip-marketing/
http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/rip-marketing/#respondSun, 11 Jun 2017 00:20:18 +0000http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/bs-prince-see-how-the-fashion-world-was-influenced-by-princes-legendary-style/Thanks to all my friends who visit and read the articles posted on this blog. This week I will like to share an article I read by Ryan Flannagan on the death of marketing which I consider insightful and thought provoking. This article is from mycustomer.com (link to main article at end of the article).

Marketing as you know it died a slow death between the late 1990s and the early 2010s – a death caused by complications from consumer sophistication, growing media options, and changes in the media delivery system. If your business is trying old-school marketing in the digital world, you are wasting money. If you’re struggling to understand the new ways of reaching, selling to, and retaining customers, you’re not alone.

It’s a brave, new, paradigm-killing world out there. My free book Marketing is Dead gives all the key details for understanding what works best today. For those who need a quicker fix, here is the “Bad, Good, and Ugly” of 21st-century digital marketing and what it means for you.

The bad

The bad news here is that you’re almost certainly wasting money. Everybody knows how old-school marketing methods like broadcast media and mass-mailing floods work, which makes most folks reluctant to make the shift over to channels they understand less.

The consumer had changed. Old-school marketing reached passive, unconnected consumers with limited options as to how they viewed or read media. It included television spots that played to a living room full of viewers who watched only what the networks offered at that particular time. It splashed across glossy magazines eagerly anticipated and delivered to the home once a month. Word of mouth spread slowly over dinner conversations and phone calls.

Today’s consumer is active, connected, sophisticated and inundated with options. She watches television on demand, and spends ad time surfing the web on her phone. He doesn’t wait for this month’s issue of Motorcycle Enthusiast because he can find all the articles he wants with a quick Google search. Word of mouth happens instantaneously over social media, and can create viral publicity for the good or benefit of a company faster than overnight.

Any marketing plan that doesn’t address this fundamental change in the consumer is a marketing plan doomed to fail. Because the consumer has changed, your company’s relationship with the consumer must also change. Clear and obvious marketing messages must be replaced with robust content sharing your knowledge. A salesman-buyer relationship has to become a mentor-pupil dynamic where you demonstrate your expertise while simultaneously building trust.

And it all has to be optimised for web search, robustly measured, and tweaked in real time.

What you can do today…

Change your mindset from “marketing” to “business development” to reflect the differences between what used to work and what you must do to succeed today.

Audit your website to find all pieces of remarkably educational and useful information already on hand. Do the same for your print, video and audio marketing messages.

Read the three top books in your field written for laypeople. Compare them to the quality of information you currently provide to your potential clients.

The good

The good news about this paradigm shift is how much less expensive and more reliable the new business development methods are. Where money on TV spots carried a premium price tag and could only deliver a correlation with increased sales rather than a measurable causal relationship, a paid link to your landing page costs pennies on the dollar and tells you exactly how many people clicked that particular link – and in real-time. An inbound content marketing system does the job of half a sales team, 24 hours a day, for the cost of maintaining your server, while reporting to you the details of how well each component is working.

The better news is how few people are doing this right. If you adopt the new business development paradigm before your competitors, you will operate at a serious advantage until they get with the program. Even once they do, the momentum of your thought leadership, social engagement, and referral network will keep you in the lead.

What you can do today…

Shift your social media strategy from a broadcast platform to a place consumers and potential clients can interact meaningfully with your company.

Identify the five things you wish you could know about the results of your existing marketing and sales platform.

Visit your web page and count how many clicks you have to make before you are offered a chance to buy something or sign up for a newsletter.

The ugly

All paradigm shifts have experienced the same ugly trend. When there’s money to be made in a situation new enough that people understand that it’s important without knowing how it works…charlatans come running to make a payday off the gullible or desperate. Right behind them come well-intentioned people who don’t really understand the new paradigm enough to help people make the shift.

This is happening in digital marketing right now. For every solid, metrics-based, professional and effective online marketing agency or consultant, there are ten sources who will waste your money either intentionally or unintentionally. Although this situation isn’t unique to modern digital marketing, it’s happening right now and could be happening to you.

What you can do today…

Visit the website of anybody you’re considering bringing on to consult or run your business development system. Ask yourself whether that site is following the paradigms we’ve discussed in this article. If not, ask yourself why.

Download my free book on modern digital marketing. Use the information there to build up your existing business development, and to rate the claims and value of whoever you put in charge of shifting your paradigm.

Marketing is dead. Long live business development. Making the shift isn’t something you can do overnight, or (in most cases) without bringing in some outside expertise. But between the lower cost per lead, higher sales per close, and better long-term retention, it’s not only worth it for your frugal business… it’s necessary.

The Minister of Finance recently announced incentives for whistleblowers as one of the strategies of combating corruption. Since the announcement, the social media has been agog with reactions ranging from: let’s wait and see, to hilarious, and to more bizarre comments like don’t mind them they are confused, etc. I would like to address the issue by being academic, and maybe realistic.

What is Whistleblowing?

A whistleblower (also whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization (or community) that is either private or public. … Two other classifications of whistleblowing are private and public (Wikipedia; italics provided)

Whistleblowers can also be designated by the type of whistleblowing. Federal whistleblowers: These are government employees who reveal misconduct committed by their employers or can also be private-sector employees who inform about the misconduct of their employers that is committed in relation to the federal government.

Benefits of Whistleblowing

For people who work for the federal government, the Whistleblower Protection Act, or WPA, protects disclosures of misconduct. This law protects federal employees who disclose illegal or improper government activities.

Whistleblower protection is therefore essential to encourage the reporting of misconduct, fraud and corruption. Providing effective protection for whistleblowers supports an open culture where people are not only aware of how to report but also have confidence in the reporting procedures. It also helps businesses prevent and detect bribery in commercial transactions. The protection of both public and private sector whistleblowers from retaliation for reporting in good faith suspected acts of corruption and other wrongdoing is therefore integral to efforts to combat corruption, safeguard integrity, enhance accountability, and support a clean business environment.

Is Whistleblowing Peculiar to Nigeria?

About 50 countries have adopted national laws of Whistleblowing in one form or the other to address the issue of corruption. Some include: USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Jamaica, India, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, New Zealand, South Africa, Ghana, South Korea, and Uganda. Kenya and Rwanda are still considering adopting the law.

Impact of Whistleblowing on corruption

The risk of corruption is significantly heightened in environments where the reporting of wrongdoing is not supported or protected. Where a culture of disclosure is created it will help to reduce corruption as seen in the developed world.

Legal issues:

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the following legal issues are required for consideration:

Is there comprehensive and clear legislation in place to protect from retaliation, discriminatory or disciplinary action, employees/citizens who disclose in good faith and on reasonable grounds, suspected acts of wrongdoing or corruption to competent authorities?

Are there effective institutional frameworks and clear procedures and channels in place for facilitating the reporting of wrongdoing and corruption?

Are retaliatory actions clearly defined and the protection afforded robust and comprehensive?

Are remedies and sanctions for retaliation clearly outlined?

Is awareness-raising regularly undertaken to encourage the reporting of wrongdoing and corruption and to disseminate existing information on the protection of whistleblowers?

Is the effectiveness in practice of the whistleblower protection framework periodically evaluated and reviewed?

Nigeria, is it Achievable?

Is 5% commission enough incentive to be a whistleblower? This million-dollar question is; Is our society and security apparatus ready to protect whistleblowers? How do we mitigate these fears?Will the average Nigerian risk his life for 5%?

Objectives

Now my two pence: I believe the principles behind whistleblowing are noble and in line with global best practices as seen in over 50 countries, it means we must watch each other’s back. The fight against corruption has been mostly against politicians which is good however, I think whistleblowing should look at other sectors especially the civil service, where corruption is still huge. The challenge I see, is that of abuse; I can call to report my neighbor if I am jealous of his achievements. So, lots of spurious alerts, but there will be successes to. As with other programs in Nigeria, implementation is my fear. Government should not be in a hurry to introduce the law without having structures in place to achieve seamless success.

]]>http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/whistleblower/feed/0Development Bank Of Nigeria (DBN); A Cliché or Realityhttp://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/development-bank-of-nigeria-dbn-a-cliche-or-reality/
http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/development-bank-of-nigeria-dbn-a-cliche-or-reality/#respondSun, 11 Jun 2017 00:20:08 +0000http://obrimahblog.com/2017/06/11/bs-how-to-use-apple-cider-vinegar-for-effective-weight-loss/The Federal Ministry of Finance through a news release dated January 12, 2016,confirmed the completion of the recruitment exercise for the Executive Management team of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), and has applied for its operational license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The DBN is expected to have access to US$1.3bn (N396.5 billion) jointly provided by the World Bank (WB), KfW (German Development Bank), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Agence Française de Development (French Development Agency). The Bank is also finalizing agreements with the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The DBN, will be providing loans to all sectors of the economy including, manufacturing, services and other industries not currently served by existing development banks thereby filling an important gap in the provision of finance to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The DBN per the press release, will lend wholesale to Microfinance Banks which will on-lend medium to long-term loans to MSMEs. The MSMEs contribute about 48.47 percent to the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of Nigeria but have access to only about 5 percent of lending from Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).

So, what is a developmental bank?

According to Pooja Solanki: A Development bank is essentially a multi-purpose financial institution with a broad development outlook. A development bank may, thus, be defined as a financial institution concerned with providing all types of financial assistance (medium as well as long term) to business units, in the form of loans, underwriting, investment and guarantee operations, and promotional activities — economic development in general, and industrial development. It is therefore a development- oriented bank. The main functions of Development banks would include:

The DBN is expected to have access to US$1.3bn (N396.5 billion) jointly provided by the World Bank (WB), KfW (German Development Bank), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Agence Française de Development (French Development Agency). The Bank is also finalizing agreements with the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Aspecialized financial institution.

Providing medium and long term finance to business units.

Unlike commercial banks, it does not accept deposits from the public.

It is not just a term-lending institution. It is a multi-purpose financial institution.

A development-oriented bank. Its primary objective is to promote economic development by promoting investment and entrepreneurial activity in a developing economy. It encourages new and small entrepreneurs and seeks balanced regional growth.

It provides financial assistance not only to the private sector but also to public sector undertakings.

It aims at promoting the saving and investment habit in the community.

It does not compete with the normal channels of finance, i.e., finance already made available by the banks and other conventional financial institutions. Its major role is of a gap-filler, i.e., to fill up the deficiencies of the existing financial facilities.

Its motive is to serve public interest rather than to make profits. It works in the general interest of the nation.

Per the press release; operations of the DBN will be clearly distinct from other development banks as it will focus on supporting small businesses defined by size and not by sectors. Time will confirm this!!!

Why wholesale lending to micro-finance banks for onward lending? Is this not the same model as BOI?

This model requires guarantee of participating banks thereby transferring the risk 100 percent to the commercial or microfinance banks. I see this as a limitation which is also the current challenge with the BOI model as well as intervention funds. I think a risk sharing model would be most ideal where the commercial or microfinance institution takes 70% and the DBN takes 30%. Well that’s my two pence.

Why microfinance? – The DBN is expected to lend to the micro-business people, from what I gather; mama Sikira who sells Fried bean balls (popularly known as Akara) and mama Akpabio who sells roasted plantain and groundnut will be beneficiaries of these loans.

Excellent idea to drill down, however, there are capacity issues in the financial institutions, do they have the manpower capability to manage these group of people without starting a new generation of non-performing loans in the banking sector?

I am made to understand that the DBN will be providing capacity development support for the personnel of selected institutions. Information has it that some institutions have been selected as part of the pre-operational activities of the DBN and staff audit carried out to determine skills gaps and how to mitigate them through capacity development to be provided by the DBN. I want to believe this is true and if yes, a laudable step.

Is this a profit-making venture?

It was difficult to get an answer as to profit or no profit. It is speculated that lending will be at single digit which is a welcome development. Considering that this group contributes 48.47% of GDP; support for this sector and anticipated growth will no doubt impact the economy. Good thing is they are not import dependent. (Don’t quote me).

Conclusion:

The DBN is a good development and will no doubt create new employment in the financial sector (just that I was left out) as well as create expansion of financial services to some previously unbanked areas. I do hope that implementation is well planned and that it does not become politicized like every other institution in the country, that only competent hands are hired to manage the Bank. Excellent implementation will improve the economic environment at the micro-business level and impact standard of living.